


I'm Not Following You Anymore

by catisacat



Category: Watch Dogs (Video Games)
Genre: Background Marcus/Wrench, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-01 06:31:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12150678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catisacat/pseuds/catisacat
Summary: Nicole has moved to the other side of the country and made a new life for herself, free from the dangerous hackers her brother brought into her life. Unfortunately, it's a rather lonely one as she hasn't managed to meet any new people.Reluctantly she downloads a dating app and finds herself tangled up in the hacking world again as she matches with Sitara Dhawan.





	1. A New Start

**Author's Note:**

> Ubisoft may make roughly one major female character per game but they underestimate how few fucks I give and how there's literally no one to stop me from writing femslash for their games anyways.

“Alright, Nicole, you can do this,” Nicole herself said, pointing to her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

When Aiden had told her to leave by god she had left. Gone as far away from Chicago as she could while staying in the country. She figured San Francisco was far enough. Away from the corruption of Chicago but somewhere where Jackson could make a lot of friends. Nicole doubted she could live too far from a big city.

For two years she’d be living in San Francisco and while she had somewhat made peace with losing almost everything she hadn’t really met many other people. Mostly the people she met were for Jackson’s benefit. His teachers, his psychologist, a few of his friends’ moms. But no one she connected personally with.

Loaded up on her phone was an app that terrified her more than anything else right now. SFDates. A dating app.

For a year, Nicole had avoided using the internet with all her might. But times are changing and it was actively damaging Jackson’s social life and grades so cautiously she’d allowed him back on it. Now she was too.

Speed dating had been a failure, nothing close to what she was looking for. By now she was starting to get so lonely though.

Her phone was in her hand, resting on the sink. Her camera was on but only showing the sink it was pointed down into as Nicole tried to get herself psyched up. A selfie.

“This isn’t hard,” Nicole reaffirmed herself, lifting the offending device, “You’re a big girl, things are hard without your brother but damn it, you’ve seen hell and come back. You can take a picture of yourself.”

With difficulty, she hoisted the phone to a perfect angle, still talking to herself, “Push that button, Nicole. Your hair looks nice, your make up’s perfect. You! Are! Ready!”

With a quiet click, the deed was done. With relief, Nicole found that her first shot was perfect and she wasn’t going to have to suffer through more. Hands shaking, she uploaded the photo to SFDates.

“It’s going to be fine, Nicky,” she said, holding the phone to her chest, “Your life is starting over. You’re going to meet a nice person. You’re away from the danger. You’re away from what Aiden brought into your life. You’re away from all the hackers.”

\- - -

Meanwhile, in the Hackerspace which is full of hackers there was another woman who is a hacker setting up her profile.

“I already have plenty of pictures of myself,” Sitara protested as Marcus pulled the phone out of her hand.

Flicking through the photos Sitara had pulled up, he kept quietly denying each one, “Nah. Nope. Nuh-uh. Nerp. No.”

Snatching it back she brandished it at him, “And what exactly is wrong with them?”

“I’m tellin’ you, Sitara, you can’t put a picture of you with ‘Dedsec’ plastered all over it. You’re gonna scare everyone normal off and end up with a bunch of Dedsec groupies. You wanna sift through all the groupies?”

“But Dedsec is my baby,” Sitara protested, “Everyone who has a kid puts it on their profile, I’m just being upfront.”

“Small human the person you’re gonna be dating is gonna interact with is different than the underground hacker organization you help run.”

Wrench butted in, pointing his screwdriver at her, “Hey what if you find someone juuust your type but they’ve got a kid? Ohhh what if you have to be a step mom?!”

“Look, at this point, as long as it’s not a baby or a toddler I’m fine with it.”

“If you’re down with that there’s gonna be a lot of single parents on there and guess what, man? They’re gonna be scared off by a Dedsec logo,” Marcus said, tugging on her offending sweater’s sleeve.

“Think of the MILFs, Sitara, think of the MILFs!!” Wrench yelled, gesturing wildly with his tools in his hands.

Sitara threw a pillow off the couch at him as hard as she could, “Shut the fuck up, Wrench!”

He dodged it, just barely, before putting both his fists in the air in victory.

Ignoring him, Sitara looked back down at her pictureless profile, “Augh, maybe this is a mistake.”

“Nah, dating app worked for me, it’ll work for you,” Marcus said.

“It didn’t ‘work for you’,” Sitara retorted, pointing at the now winking Wrench, “You had a profile for like two days, Wrench found out about it, then that night you came home to him having broken into your house, naked on your bed.”

Marcus looked downright confused as he stumbled out, “Uh, yeah, but it worked? Just… just go fill out your profile and pick a picture where you ain’t got Dedsec logos all over you.”

“Is that what you told her happened?” Marcus said, walking over to Wrench as Sitara wandered away fiddling with her profile, “Because unless I’ve had too many blows to the head I’m pretty sure you just grabbed my hand while we were watching a movie together, blurted out that you ‘like liked’ me like a five year old, then had a panic attack and started hyperventilating so bad you had to take your mask off so you wouldn’t pass out.”

Wrench crossed his arms, lying through his teeth with a ‘- -’ on his ‘face’, “Well, I don’t recall any of that happening I just told Sitara things as I remembered them.”

“You better be happy I don’t like makin’ a fool of you because sometimes you make it too easy,” Marcus laughed, patting his boyfriend on the stomach, “I’m all attached to you and shit.”

“So romantic!” Wrench exclaimed, collapsing in on his boyfriend, “Truly Shakespearian levels of prose.”

Walking back Sitara shoved at Wrench’s head, “Alright, stop being lovey-dovey while your poor friend tries to fill out her dating profile. It’s depressing.”

“I knew it! You’re jealous of our love,” Wrench yelled at her.

Ignoring him, Sitara said, “Okay, so if I’m not allowed to say I’m Dedsec what should I put for my job? Like, if I put ‘artist’ does that still sound like a deadbeat or is that legit enough in San Francisco?”

“It’s legit, put that on there. People will think you’re deep,” Marcus replied.

“You say that like I’m not,” she said before holding up a finger at Wrench, “And don’t say it, Wrench.”

“You can predict my sass, our relationship is getting stale,” Wrench lamented.

Still having none of his shit, Sitara handed Marcus her phone, “Look this over to make sure I don’t sound like a pretentious bitch.”

“Why am I everyone go-to ‘is this cool’ guy?” Marcus asked.

“Because everyone loves you and we’re hoping to leech some of that from you.”

“Alright, that’s fair,” Marcus replied, handing her phone back, “It’s fine, just post it already and start digging through your options.”

Nodding, Sitara hit post and wandered to a couch to get started on this.

\- - -

Lounging around in her pajamas, Nicole started the arduous process of picking through her supposed “matches.”

Nicole wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be picky with this but at the beginning she found herself looking through every detail of their profiles before clicking yes or no.

Based on the late night talk show jokes she was pretty sure she was supposed to be making a bunch of shallow, first glance choices but she was taking this serious, dammit.

This guy? No, it says he’s a smoker and his only listed hobby is ‘drinking with the boys.’ This girl? Sure, she likes baking and going for hikes. Weird combo but whatever. This girl? Definitely on meth or something similar. Yikes. This guy? Is that… is that a tattoo of a dick on his arm? Hell no, pass. This girl? Oh come on, seriously? Who has scene chick hair anymore? She looks like a purple zebra.

Okay maybe she was rejecting people for some petty reasons too, she’s only human after all.

More and more profiles, she just kept browsing. Eventually looking over at the clock on her DVR, Nicole was shocked to see that a couple hours had passed. She’d gotten way too absorbed in this and the options were just getting more and more unappealing.

Sighing and just about ready to call it quits, Nicole decided to check just one more match.

Wearily, she lift the phone up to her face. A woman. Sitara Dhawan.

This woman had purple in her hair too but in a much, much less gaudy fashion. With one look, Nicole correctly guessed that she was an artist. It was unsurprising. The picture appeared to be from some artsy event in the desert, the woman was wearing an angel themed outfit.

Nicole thought she was more than pretty enough and looked like she had a fairly interesting life. She clicked on more information.

Her guess was confirmed, this “Sitara” woman was definitely an artist. There were a few more pictures of her at art shows but most of them were oddly cropped so she could only see a part of the picture.

That was a bit odd to her but she figured maybe the woman just didn’t want to be dated for her art? Is that a thing? That might be a thing.

Aside from pictures of that it seemed like Sitara had a close group of friends. Definitely a plus. Maybe not only would she get a girlfriend but some regular friends by way of said girlfriend. She tried not to judge the fact some of them looked a little odd. Namely that one was wearing a weird spiky mask and the fact another one of them appeared to be twice the age of everyone else. He looked oddly familiar.

But all in all, this Sitara chick seemed fairly stable yet interesting.

Nicole hit ‘yes’ before turning her phone off for the night.

\- - -

Sitara was very quickly realizing that trying to pick through her matches in the Hackerspace was a mistake as Marcus, Wrench or, hell, even Josh was pulling her phone away from her and participating in the search.

After a while it barely even felt like she was even making the choices herself as her weird jury of her peers judged each alongside her.

“Hell no,” Marcus said, pointing at the weirdly clothed woman on her phone accusingly, “She dresses like she’s never seen another human being in her life. An alien trying to blend in with us.”

Wrench waved a hand at the next person, a rather generic looking guy, “Fuck, do you want to be bored every day of your life? He looks like he’d want to talk about stock portfolios and the status of his 401k.”

“She looks nice,” Josh calmly said, pointing at the blonde woman smiling up at them.

Thank god, someone not immediately shot down. Nicole Pearce.

“So am I allowed to actually hit more info on this one?” she sarcastically asked the other three on her panel of judges.

Looking over her shoulder, Marcus nodded. Wrench shrugged, “Kind of a normie but like, if that’s your thing.”

“Shut up Wrench,” Sitara replied as she opened the full profile.

Despite telling him to shut up, Wrench was right. This Nicole was a very white bread, normal lady. Worked a steady job in an office, wore casual but reasonably fashionable clothes, likes to go for walks and discover new places around the city, has a-

Wrench jerked the phone away from her, “She’s got a kid, everybody! I repeat, Sitara is a MILF chaser.”

“And I repeat: shut up, Wrench,” Sitara said, snatching her phone back, “I said it’s not a deal breaker and I mean it. It says here he’s twelve. I can deal with twelve.”

Before anyone else could protest, Sitara hit yes and crammed her way out of the crowd of men that had trapped her on that damn couch for an hour. Pointing her phone at them, “I hit yes for her. That’s it for now, I can’t handle any more of you guys bickering over this. I’m going home and going to bed. Sitara, out.”

\- - -

The next day, a lazy Saturday, both of the women rolled over in there bed to see if there were any matches on their accounts.

For Nicole, “Sitara Dhawan has matched with you.”

For Sitara, “Nicole Pearce has matched with you.”


	2. A Normal First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole and Sitara meet for their first date, both holding back secrets about their past.

Nicole hadn’t gotten many matches other than Sitara. Turns out not a lot of people are super crazy on the ‘already has kids’ angle.

Not to mention turns out a lot of her matches just sent her crude sexual messages. Or a picture. Had she opened that message from a guy two seconds earlier, Jackson would have seen straight up a dick. What the fuck.

Sitara was the only one who had sent her a normal human being message. Just a casual offer to go and get coffee together at some little place by the seaside.

Nicole had messaged back her schedule, which was thankfully pretty open right now. Light hours at work but nothing that Jackson was going to for a couple weeks.

Sitara’s reply confirming it came quite quickly, which honestly made Nicole blush a little. It had been a long time since anyone had really paid her any mind. The fact someone was actually eager to respond was kind of invigorating.

Going to her closet, Nicole started digging through it to try and find a suitable outfit. She had twenty-four hours and if she needed to go buy clothes? She’d need some time.

Jackson walked in as she rejected another top. Too plain.

“What are you doing?” he quietly asked, looking a the quickly accumulating reject pile.

Nicole pursed her lips. She’d vaguely mentioned to Jackson if he was okay with her going on dating sites and he really didn’t seem to mind. However, she felt like a kid asking for permission this time now that it was, you know, actually happening.

“I’ve… uh, got a date tomorrow,” Nicole sheepishly uttered, “I want to pick something nice out because I haven’t done this since… well, roughly about fourteen years now.”

Holy shit, that statement made her feel old.

Jackson didn’t pay it much mind, just nodding along. Squeezing past her, she could hear him moving hangers around a little.

A second later, he turned around and held up a white tank top with blue stripes. A cute picture of a cartoon whale was on it. Jackson had always had an affinity for this top, to be honest if he was a girl he’d probably be constantly taking it out of her closet to wear.

“Good choice,” she smiled, genuinely hoping that maybe having him help pick it out might bring her luck, “I’ll go with that, my white jacket and some matching capris. I’ll be the belle of the ball. Or the belle of the coffee shop.”

Jackson smiled at her lame joke, immediately putting her mind at ease.

This was going to be okay.

\- - -

“Oh my god, Sitara do you own one piece of clothing without a Dedsec logo on it?” Marcus chastised.

Sitara lay back on her bed, groaning, “Why did I let you into my apartment again?”

“Because you trust my opinion on fashion, like a smart person,” he replied, rejecting five more shirts for the exact same reason.

“Well, I’m feeling like a dumb person right now,” Sitara whined, “Because why should I even go on a date where I can’t be myself? I think I should just wear a normal shirt and if they’ve got a problem with me being Dedsec it’s not like it’s even going to work out anyways.”

“It’s intimidating, Sitara,” Marcus replied, squinting at a dress which bore no logo but looked too plain, “It’s not a matter of shame it’s a matter of we get literally shot at while we scale buildings doing illegal activities.”

“It’s usually just you getting shot at though.”

“Yeah because y’all won’t get off your asses and come with me.”

“You’ve actively told us not to come multiple times,” Sitara countered.

“It’s too dangerous,” Marcus immediately contradicting his previous statement complaining they don’t come out with him, finding a fairly fashionable top that was a passable ‘maybe’ and tossing it on her bed.

“You don’t always have to take it all on yourself though.”

“Psh, who else is gonna do it?” Marcus scoffed, “Wrench doesn’t really care if he dies so he’d take unnecessary risks, you’re the closest thing we have to a leader so you can’t be in that much danger, and Josh would be terrified. And Ray’s old.”

Sitara busted out laughing at that last one, “Ffffff, if you said that to his face he’d totally lose it.”

“It’s true!” Marcus replied, “So it’s just me that can do all that infiltration shit.”

“I think you just don’t want any of us to be in danger because you’re too squishy soft on the inside and don’t want us hurt,” Sitara teased, finally sitting up so she poke at Marcus’s side.

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Marcus admitted, “But I think we’re going to have to go shopping today.”

“Hell no! Don’t sound so eager, find something in there.”

“We’ll have fuuun,” Marcus sung, waving a credit card that almost certainly was connected to a fake name, “I’m buyinggg.”

“You just want to go shopping and you don’t want to go alone.”

“That can also be true,” Marcus nodded, grabbing her wrists to pull her up, “Things can be more than one thing at a time.”

“Augh, fine,” Sitara conceded. As long as she didn’t have to pay, maybe that was fine.

\- - -

Apparently the whale tank top Jackson had picked out was oddly perfect. Nicole hadn’t really thought much of the coffee shop’s name, Noah’s Ark, but turns out the whole thing was animal themed.

Everything from the tables to the chairs to the walls was covered in paints and prints of cartoony animals. Most of it looked like it had been painted by a wide variety of different artists. The walls had layers upon layers of painted animals on them.

There were two baristas behind the counter. A rather grim looking one with purple scene hair and an overly perky girl with tons and tons of bright pink hair in two big cascading puffs. She was wearing a touch too much make up.

Nametags reading Violet and… Jinxie?

Nicole tried not to stare as Violet took her order in a dry monotone while her coworker bounced around behind her, making the drink as the order was taken.

“Here!” Jinxie chirped as she flounced over with the drink in hand, “It’s a whale! Just like your shirt!”

“Uh, thanks!” Nicole said with a tense smile. The opposite treatment by the two women was jarring. Especially since the pink one was still talking to her and she didn’t have a way to politely abscond from this situation.

“My favorite mug has a pink poodle on it!” Jinxie nearly yelled, holding it up, “I painted it myself! I made Violet’s too because she’s my bestest friend EVER!”

She held up the second mug, this one with a purple zebra on it. Violet looked less than amused. Nicole had a pretty strong feeling Violet didn’t think Jinxie was a friend, let alone one deserving the title of “best.”

“They’re very nice,” Nicole had managed, completely relieved when Violet pulled Jinxie away to make her clean the counters.

As she was walking away it suddenly hit Nicole why Violet had looked so familiar; she’d been one of the women that she’d turned down on the app. Nicole tried to sit out of sight of them, maybe spare the poor girl and herself some awkwardness.

It wasn’t too long before she saw her actual date walk in though. Just barely visible with the small potted tree between them.

From what Nicole could see, Sitara was wearing an odd purple and grey wrap dress with skulls that almost certainly weren’t on it originally. Hair in a braid over her shoulder. A purse with yet another skull on it hung at her side.

Nervously, Nicole looked down at her mug in terror as the cutesy whale on it looked up at her, unforgiving.

But as Sitara was freed from the same two baristas, she immediately spotted Nicole.

Walking over with her new mug in hand, bearing a purple kitty cat on it, Sitara awkwardly waved, “Hey! I’m Sitara Dhawan.”

“Nicole Pearce,” she replied, holding out a hand to shake Sitara’s.

Awkwardly shuffling, Sitara pulled the other chair a bit closer to Nicole’s, “Sorry this place is a bit… eccentric. But it’ll be the best coffee you’ve ever had, I promise. Also the pink oddball up there owes me a favor so maybe we’re getting some freshly made donuts in about twenty minutes.”

So apparently her date had connections. Nicole smiled at that, “So do you come here often?”

Damn it Nicole, she cursed herself, way to say the lamest, most generic thing possible.

“Yeah, I helped paint the place on pinkie’s insistence,” Sitara said, nodding towards Jinxie, “She found me on a.... San Francisco artist page... and was desperate for someone to paint the animals with her.”

“Does she own this place?” Nicole asked.

“Yuhp, rich ass parents,” Sitara replied, “Really wanted a coffee place, really wanted it animal themed, really underestimated how hard it would be to paint everything. She did the mugs, I did… well… everything else.”

Nicole quickly looked around again, taking better note of the animals on the walls compared to the art on the mugs, “They’re really cute, do you draw a lot of animals?”

“Nah, not really,” Sitara replied, expertly dancing around what she was actually doing with her art, “All my stuff is more inspired by horror movies.”

“Do you… have any of it on your phone?” Nicole asked uncertainly, not entirely certain if that was a rude question or not. She had to admit, she really had no experience with artists. She was never was, her brother never was, Jackson never was. A whole world outside her own.

Sitara didn’t mind, pulling out her cell and bringing up the folder that Marcus had made. He’d insisted on doing it for her, claiming that an outside eye would do a better job of making sure it didn’t look too Dedsec-y. Nicole took it, flipping through the gallery. Honestly, it was a relief for her to see actually good art. She’d been mildly concerned if Sitara was going to be some eccentric who does some Jackson Pollock bullshit.

“You’re really good!” Nicole smiled, handing it back and picking up her drink again, “I really haven’t known any artists. My family is super technical, my brother works with computers and my son always has looked up to him so I think he’s going to end up doing that too.”

“Oh, yeah, I work with computers too,” Sitara said, immediately ignoring Marcus’s advice to not even bring up her computer work, “I’m complex like that. Right brain, left brain, I like to work out both of them. Arguably I guess you could say I make more of my income doing the computer stuff.”

So much for completely avoiding computers. Nicole was mildly off put by that but tried to spin it as a positive, “Maybe if everything goes well between us you and Jackson can bond over that. He really misses his uncle.”

Damn it, Nicole! Don’t bring up your weird hacker brother so much!”

Sitara looked uncomfortable at that making Nicole feel even weirder about bringing it up, “Did… did your brother die recently?”

“Oh! Oh no,” Nicole startled, nearly spilling her drink a bit, “We just moved here from Chicago, he’s still lives there.”

“Any reason you moved to San Francisco?” Sitara asked, “I moved from L.A. because it’s kinda, you know, soulless and vapid there.”

“Just needed to get away from Chicago,” Nicole replied, trying to come up with a reason that didn’t involve being kidnapped and killing a dude, “It’s… gloomy there. I miss it though, honestly. Even if it’s kind of a dark place.”

“I feel you,” Sitara nodded as she took a sip of her drink, “L.A. can be really soul sucking but… there were good parts of it.”

“Jackson seems happy here though, I suppose that’s the most important part,” Nicole continued, “By the way… you’re not like, weirded out by the whole ‘kid’ thing, right? Because that’s kind of, you know, a deal breaker if you’re not ready to be a second mom.”

Sitara was ready for this question, or at least she thought she was until she got about halfway through her reply, “Yeah, I mean, I know it’s gonna be a lot but since he’s almost a teen and not like a baby or a toddler like… I couldn’t handle THAT but an older kid is easier. Well, like, not EASY but like… he’s not wearing diapers and trying to stick things in light sockets. Like, you can leave him alone for ten seconds without him trying to succumb to the cold embrace of the grave.”

Foot, meet mouth.

But it made Nicole laugh but it was quickly stifled by a somber look.

“Yeah, it’s nice now that I don’t have to plug up the sockets anymore and he stopped trying to eat everything.”

“Speaking of eating things,” Sitara said, watching Jinxie bounce over with a plate in her hands, “I think our donuts are ready.”

Nicole smiled at her, utterly relieved at how well this was going.

Maybe this would be okay, dating someone.

Despite it being two years since she left Chicago, for the first time, Nicole really felt like her life was starting over.


	3. A Not-So-Normal Second Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sitara and Nicole go on a second date which goes well up until the very end.

“So it went well?” Marcus repeated as Sitara paced back and forth.

“Yes?” Sitara asked, looking down at the message she’d sent a few hours earlier on her phone. Unread yet, presumably because Nicole was at work.

“Then why the hell are you freaking out?”

Sitara collapsed over the side of the couch, “I don’t know! I haven’t done this shit since I was a teenager.”

“Wait,” Marcus cut her off, “Have you seriously not been on a date since high school?”

Pulling herself over the edge to point at Marcus accusingly, “Hey! That shit’s not unusual anymore, don’t act like it’s weird. You think I can’t kick your ass?”

“Just sayin’, I’m surprised since out of all of us you’re pretty much the most social,” Marcus replied, “You’re always going to art shows and recruiting people.”

“That’s work, Marcus, do you hit on people at work?”

“... does being at the Hackerspace count as being at work? Because, if so, I hate to tell you I’m dating a coworker, please don’t fire us we’ve got ten kids and a dog to raise.”

Wrench hollered from whatever electronic he was tinkering on, “Think of our children, Sitara! Timmy, Marcus Jr., King Kong, Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Chicken Nugget, Wrench 2: Electric Boogaloo, Coke Fiend, Punchface von Kickass, Taco Bell and Beer Pong! Also the dog, I-Hate-Dogs-Fuck-Off.”

“God, I hope you guys never have kids,” Sitara mumbled, “Marcus, you’d be an alright father. Wrench? Not so much.”

“Excuse you, I’d be the coolest dad,” Wrench interjected, “Let ‘em get tattoos are young as they want of whatever they want.”

“Great. Get a kid with Dickbutt tattoo’d on his forehead.”

Wrench pumped his fist at that, “Hell yeah, that sounds awesome! Lil’ Coke Fiend is gonna kick ass.”

Sitara turned back to Marcus, “Please promise me you’ll never adopt some poor little bastard.”

Before he could answer, Sitara’s phone went off in her hand. Marcus pointed at it, “Told you she’d answer!”

Opening the message, Sitara relayed it, “She had fun and she wants to meet again next week. Wants to know if I have any ideas on what to do.”

“Go on a picnic, weather’s nice and chicks love that shit,” Ray nodded, not looking away from his laptop for a second.

“Thanks, Ray. Glad to talk to someone who knows ‘chicks’ so well. I definitely don’t know anything about women. I mean, what the fuck is a girl even?” Sitara sassed back.

Ray looked up now, pouting, “Fine, don’t take a poor old man’s advice.”

“No, I mean, it’s a good idea. Just don’t condescend to me.”

Grumbling, Ray got back to work.

Sitara was already texting her back the idea, “If I’m suggesting it I guess I’ve gotta make the food don’t I? I’m not much of a cook.”

“How about this- we all put something in? Could be fun,” Marcus suggested to the room at large.

There were some grumblings in response.

Despite his suggestion’s initial lukewarm reaction by the time next week when everyone was in Marcus’s very fancy kitchen they had a legitimate blast.

Halfway through the boys ended up deciding that Sitara shouldn’t see what was in there until the actual picnic. Sitara knew that maybe wasn’t the best idea ever but was too intrigued by the potential fun to argue.

Walking into the park, Sitara’s little box of mystery hung off her arm.

The only food in there she was one hundred percent certain of was her own.

Nicole had already spread out a blanket and was sitting on it with what she’d brought. An apple pie, pretty standard. Not many people are going to object to that, right?

She waved as she saw Sitara get within eatshot, “Sitara! Over here!”

“Hey Nicole,” Sitara greeted her, folding her legs underneath her as she placed the basket in front of her, “How’s everything been going?”

“Pretty good, made a pie,” Nicole said, patting the top of the box it was in before pointing at the large basket in front of her, “You… really went all out, didn’t you? What’d you bring?”

“No idea!” Sitara said with a smile.

Nicole blinked, “What?”

“My friends heard my second date was a picnic and wanted to help, said what they made should be a surprise. The only thing I know for sure is in there are samosas because I made those.”

Nicole laughed, “Really? So this is going to be Russian Roulette or are your friends good cooks?”

“I’m gonna be really honest with you, it’s Russian Roulette. I’ve never seen most of them cook. I’m honestly pretty certain we’re going to find at least one microwave frozen meal in there.”

“Well then, let’s get this started,” Nicole nodded towards the basket.

“Well, this is mine so these are the samosas as promised,” Sitara said, putting the box labelled as such on the blanket. Digging out the next box, labelled ‘Josh’, she figured this one would be a pretty safe bet, “Alright, let’s see what’s behind door number one!”

Nicole peeked in the box with Sitara and found… two very neatly made sandwiches. Cut in perfect triangles. Sitara nodded, “Makes sense, I’m pretty sure I’ve almost never seen him eat anything other than sandwiches.”

“Creature of habit?” Nicole asked.

“You don’t even know the half of it,” Sitara smiled.

Pulling out the next box she found it labelled ‘Ray’. Flipping open the top of the box, Sitara found it full of brownies. Nicole smiled, “Oh I love brownies!”

“Yeah, uh, hope they’re good,” Sitara said, frantically but successfully texting Ray a threat of disembowelment if these turned out to be pot brownies behind her back.

Now Sitara was a bit more apprehensive as she brought out the next box but considering it was labelled ‘Marcus’ it was hopefully something more normal. And it was, popping open the top revealed a nicely arranged fruit salad. Very Marcus. Knew his limitations, still made something anyone would like.

“Very healthy, this friend a vegetarian?” Nicole asked.

“Nah, just don’t think he cooks much,” Sitara replied, “He does like fruit though, there was a fuckload of it in his house.”

Maybe she shouldn’t have sworn. Not giving Nicole time to react to her curse, Sitara pulled out the final box. Labelled ‘Wrench’. To be honest, Sitara was most nervous to open this one. God knows what he stuck in there.

Pulling off the lid to the plastic container Sitara found…

“Oh, they’re adorable!” Nicole said, pulling it closer to examine the contents. Inside were several hotdogs, cut up to look like octopuses. Little emoticon faces drawn on them in mustard. Still smiling, Nicole asked, “Does one of your friends have a kid that wanted to help?”

“No, these were, uh, definitely made by a nearly thirty year old man,” Sitara confessed.

Nicole looked a bit surprised at that, “Well, they’re still cute.”

All in all, despite her suspicions about the brownies, Sitara was pretty happy with how her friends had helped. She did make an excuse to pick off a piece of the potentially offending dessert when Nicole wasn’t looking but found it smelled and tasted normal.

The two of them chatted idly while they ate, sun slowly sinking down the sky.

\- - -

After finishing up and repackaging the remains, Sitara decided to walk Nicole home.

Apparently the park Sitara’d randomly chosen was only a few blocks away from there, a helpful coincidence.

Sitara awkwardly offered her free arm, which Nicole took. It was a bit off balance walking like this, with Nicole having a good nearly half a foot on her. However it was making the two of them giggle as they bopped awkwardly into each other as they walked.

The busy street was brightly lit by billboards and moving signs.

“Never liked the way they industrialized this area, used to have a lot of beautiful graffiti art on these walls,” Sitara lamented.

“Was any of it yours?” Nicole asked, punctuated by another giggle as their hips collided as they swerved to avoid another couple.

“Nah, it was already all screens by the time I moved here” Sitara shook her head, “I only ever saw pictures of what used to be here.”

Nicole nodded at that, not really wanting to bring up her fears about technology growing over cities. Don’t dump that on someone you’ve just met, Pearce. That’s a Pandora’s box for another day.

Right not you’re safe, there’s no hackers here. No one’s chasing you. You’re far, far away from Aiden’s world.

But as she thought that there was a sudden flickering on the screens. Static and lines caused the screen to distort until loud and glaring laughter blared over the speakers. Neon cats and cartoon poops filled the screen.

Nicole froze in place in terror as the hacker’s voice started listing her demands over the din of the crowd. Something, something, Dedsec.

Next to her, Sitara swore under her breath. Of course Lenni would pull some dumb shit tonight.

Before Sitara could come up with an excuse to rush home, Nicole grabbed her hand and took off running. There was only a second of Sitara being dragged along before she managed to get her legs underneath her.

In no time Nicole stopped abruptly outside a door, panting with her hands on her knees.

Coming down off her freak out, Nicole realized exactly how crazy she must look. But there’s HACKERS here. But.. she’s not on their radar, why would she be? There was no way what she just saw was connected to Aiden, right?

Trying to regain her composure, face bright red, Nicole pushed her hair back out of her face, “Uhm, sorry, I just… uh, I was still in Chicago when there was that blackout. Malfunctioning technology makes me nervous.”

Thankfully, Sitara didn’t look too concerned by this behavior, “It’s fine, you’re… you’re pretty fast. I used to be a track star and you just gave me a run for my money.”

Relieved, Nicole still felt the need to get inside and get safe. She smiled though, “I had fun this afternoon though, we should definitely do this again.”

“Hopefully with less technical difficulties, yeah?” Sitara grinned.

Nicole nodded, “Absolutely. I’ve gotta get back inside and call Jackson’s friend’s mom. She said she’d drop him off after my date.”

“Of course, I’ve gotta meet my friends tonight too,” Sitara agreed.

For a second they were both quiet before Sitara awkwardly raised her arms for a hug. Still blushing a little Nicole obliged, giving her a tight squeeze before going inside.

\- - -

Power walking a block away from both Nicole’s house and the Prime 8 attack still flashing in the distance, Sitara pulled out her phone.

Several missed calls were blinking red up at her. Ray. Marcus. Wrench. Josh, of course, had the sense to not leave her the fiftieth unheeded message for her.

Ray’s was the most recently so she tapped the return call button and held the phone up to her ear. There was less than one ring before the older man’s voice was practically yelling at her, “Sitara! Prime 8 has-”

“Yeah, already saw. Great way to end a date, Lenni threatening my baby. I’ll be at the Hackerspace in like ten, twenty minutes.”

“By the way, about the brownies. Did you really think I was gonna sneak some fuckin’ pot brownies on you?”

“You literally gave us weed laced with LSD the first time we met.”

“That’s… fair,” Ray conceded.

“Plus you definitely know how to make brownies because of pot brownies, right?”

“Damn girl, leave a poor old man alone.”

Sitara smiled, her phone already unlocking a nearby car for her to take, “If it makes you feel any better they were actually really good.”

“Heh, thanks,” Ray smirked, “See you in a bit.”

The ignition started at the push of a button on her phone, “Be there soon.”


	4. Sometimes The Shoulder Devil Wins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sitara begins to have some suspicions about Nicole and her past.

Dates continued to pass amicably over the next month or so.

Nicole enjoyed seeing San Francisco from a more artistic point of view, Sitara enjoying the concept of dating someone… well… normal.

Usually Sitara was the one in charge of setting up the dates, which she didn’t mind. She knew the area much better than the Chicago native. Maybe one day they could visit there? It really sounded like Nicole missed her brother, her son seemed to miss his uncle too.

Sitara was nervous about meeting a possible step son. That… that fact was one of the very few things worrying her.

One much bigger concern was plaguing Sitara though.

She felt like Nicole had a secret. Potentially a very big one.

For a normal person, this would be okay. They’d just wait until Nicole felt ready to tell them and deal with it then. But Sitara? She’s a hacker and she deals in hidden information and it is absolutely killing her that she could find out everything in a snap of her fingers. Nicole was just too cagey about very basic details of her life, weird things like refusing to mention her brother by name or say what she did for a living in Chicago.

Tonight she was especially agonizing over it, draped dramatically on her couch. Marcus and Wrench were over, largely because they decided they were but mostly because they could tell something was wrong. Well, Marcus could, Wrench was just kind of along for the ride.

Setting a bowl of popcorn on Sitara’s stomach as a peace offering, Marcus pointed at her, “Alright, something’s wrong. Something’s been wrong. Now you’ve made the vital mistake of inviting us into your house and you have to tell us.”

Sitara looked mournfully down at the popcorn before curling around it protectively, “None of your business.”

“It’s my business when you’re moping around the Hackerspace and being generally unhelpful.”

“Excuse you, I’m very helpful.”

Marcus countered, “Actually, you said you were gonna put on a song like you always did but you got distracted and put on bavarian polka by accident.’

“I just fucked up the link,” Sitara defended herself, “It was a banger though right? Polka can be fun.”

Wrench butted in, sliding backwards over the back of the couch and crushing Sitara underneath him, “Ohhhh is it girl trouble? Trouble in paradise? I love gossip, tell me, tell me, tell me!”

“God, fuck, get off me,” Sitara said, futilely trying to get his bony back off her but still oddly grateful he’d taken off his vest earlier, “How the fuck are you so heavy?”

“I’m dense!” Wrench chirped.

“Boy howdy, you sure are,” Sitara conceded.

“Mean. Mean to Wrench.”

Marcus crouched down next to his crushed friend, “Hey, if you tell me what’s upsetting you I’ll get my heavy ass boyfriend off you?”

“Extortion. It’s come to extortion,” Sitara accused.

“Wrench, make yourself heavier.”

“You can’t just choose to be- ggguhhghguh!” Sitara started before she learned Wrench could go heavier by going completely dead weight. Swearing she gave up, “Fine! Fine! Get him off me!”

There was a brief struggle as Marcus awkwardly managed to pick Wrench up bridal style while Sitara continued to smack at the both of them unhelpfully. Wrench was very content with this, clinging until Marcus was forced to just sit with him on his lap. Ignoring Wrench happily flashing a ‘^ ^’ at them, Marcus started the interrogation, “Alright, Sitara. What are you obnoxiously fixated on?”

Sitara sighed, “You’re gonna think I’m an asshole.”

“I already kinda thing you’re an asshole.”

“Wow thanks, appreciate your friendship too,” Sitara said, “But I’m just… I feel like Nicole’s hiding something from me. Whatever it is, I think it’s something big.”

Marcus shrugged, “I’m sure she is. You’ve only known and been dating her for like a month. Shit, I’ve known Wrench for like a year now and I’m still constantly learning new, terrifying things about him.”

“I don’t even want to know,” Sitara replied.

“He eats peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches and he made eye contact with me while he did it and it was the worst thing I’ve ever seen with my eyes.”

Wrench cut in, still curled up on Marcus’s lap, “It’s good and he wouldn’t even try it.”

“God, who the hell would?” Sitara said, nose crinkling in disgust.

“Anyways, secrets are normal, Sitara,” Marcus continued, “Unless you think she’s hiding a body, don’t worry about it.

For a second she was quiet just kind of pursuing her lips and hitting the half-spilled popcorn on her lap with a thousand yard stare.

Marcus squinted at her, “What the hell is that look supposed to m-”

Much more used to deceit, Wrench started bouncing on his boyfriend’s lap, “Oh! Oh! Oh my god! Sitara! You’re thinking of hacking her!”

Raising her eyebrows, Sitara nodded a little which only made Wrench more excited.

Marcus pointed accusingly at her, then to his boyfriend and back, “Oh no no no, Sitara Dhawan you are not fucking hacking your new girlfriend that is what crazy people do.”

“She’d never know!” Sitara said, holding her hands out in front of her, “How the hell would she?”

“Sitara!” Marcus yelled at her, “Absolutely not!”

“I like new sneaky Sitara!” Wrench smirked, flashing heart eyes at her, “Hey, if you want any help with hac-”

“She doesn’t need any help because she’s not fucking hacking her new girlfriend!” Marcus yelled, “And I swear to god Wrench if you help her do any dodgy shit you are sleeping on the couch for three solid months.”

“You can’t enforce that!” Wrench protested, “I sleepwalk and you know it!”

“Hey, so, yeah, didn’t you guys come over here to watch movies with me?” Sitara said, trying to change the subject as she wiggled a DVD case of an old horror movie at them.

The rest of the night passed pleasantly enough, aside from Marcus occasionally reminding Wrench and Sitara of the consequences of being a creepy motherfucker and hacking your new girlfriend. Must have tired him out cause he fell asleep halfway through the second movie, making the fatal mistake of leaving his devious boyfriend alone with his troubled friend.

After a while, Sitara saw Wrench start moving on Marcus’s lap, sitting back and shaking his boyfriend a little. Masked face tilting towards her as soon as it was evident that the voice of reason was asleep, “Hey, yeah, so Marcus told me not to help you but Marcus is asleep now and I totally want to to help you.”

\- - -

That night Wrench had managed to wrangle Sitara into an extremely unnecessary, complicated plan while Marcus slept.

Marcus, none the wiser, was out completely cold until the next morning. Carried to the car and taken home by his boyfriend who had just made a devious deal behind his back. Completely unaware.

On her end, Sitara called up Nicole and set the plan into motion.

A few days later, Sitara was meeting Nicole outside the nearly hidden venue.

It was a concert for a local electronic metal band, purposefully chosen as it would be virtually the only place Wrench wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb. Plus, he apparently knew one of the roadies and was able to get them tickets on the cheap.

Nicole had done her best to dress for the concert but ultimately just ended up wearing an all black version of the type of clothes she usually wore. Looking like a PTA mom dipped in ink.

Awkwardly caked on some black makeup too but considering Jackson had just giggled when he saw his mom, Nicole had a feeling she must have looked a little less “badass” than she’d been aiming for. Although she was open to new experiences she knew this scene was definitely out of her comfort zone.

When Sitara showed up, Nicole couldn’t help but notice her date was definitely going to blend in a little bit better. An artfully torn shirt for a different band, studded jacket, ripped shorts, stripes socks, knee high boots, spiked jewelry, the works.

“I think I’m going to look a little… too normal for this crowd,” Nicole laughed looking out at the much more… theatrical people filing in, “Do you go to a lot of shows like this? You look like you do.”

“Nah, half of this isn’t even mine,” Sitara said, flicking at one of the various spiked accessories, “My buddy just had a couple extra tickets and gave ‘em to me, I don’t even know anything about this band. Maybe some of these clothes are his too.”

“So, like, we could walk in and they’re terrible?” Nicole joked.

Sitara was serious though, “Oh yeah, no, like, they could be really bad. But we’ll have fun, right?”

Nicole nodded as Sitara grabbed her hand and started leading her inside.

\- - -

Meanwhile, Wrench was already lurking inside. His roadie buddy had given him an extra staff pass, letting him into area he probably shouldn’t be.

Right now, he was hiding up on a catwalk and looking down at the bustling crowd below.

He spotted Sitara and Nicole easily. The latter’s concerns about standing out were very real, Wrench actually saw her before he even saw Sitara. Behind his mask he smiled, he’d told Sitara not to even worry about doing anything herself. He was gonna handle it. She seemed to have taken that to heart, it looked like the two of them were having fun.

As the music started, Wrench got started. Sitting up there, he pulled out his phone and began trying to hone in on Nicole’s phone.

It was a bit difficult with the signals of every phone in the crowd vying for his attention. Systematically eliminating one after another until he finally latched onto what had to be her phone. Time to get snooping.

The background of her phone was a young boy, presumably her son. That part of her story checks out. Very few contacts. Honestly, kinda of alarmingly few. Sitara, the school, a counsellor, a few female names. Wrench ran them quickly, only to find a bunch of women who had children around Nicole’s son’s age. Obviously parents of his friends.

Her texts were even more sparse. Only two contacts had more than a handful of messages, Sitara and “Jackson”. Presumably the son.

Digging more and more Wrench found… nothing. This phone was even remotely linked to her home computer which had very little more. Just some photos, nothing weird. Most of her and her son. A few others who appeared to be related to her, notably a little girl and a man with brown hair and green eyes. Sitara mentioned a brother, this was probably him.

Wrench tried to find any hidden files on the devices but found nothing. Giving up on that he tried to use his newfound information to find online profiles but it came up blank.

There was no trail of her moving or being born or a bank account or… anything. At all.

It was almost like “Nicole Pearce” didn’t exist. Digitally, at least.

Swearing, Wrench knew in this case no news was… kind of dodgy news. If he had to take a guess it was almost like an expert hacker was covering her every track. Looking down at the woman awkwardly trying to dance below, he had severe doubts it was her doing it.

He went to stand up but as he did, his phone suddenly started going haywire.

“Fuck!” he yelled, not even remotely heard by the crowd below, “What the fuck?!”

Quickly trying to counter it, Wrench could tell some powerful hacker was countering him. Frantically he tried to latch onto the signal but, getting sloppy, he was making alarms go off and the lights go haywire below.

\- - -

When the lights and sound started going nuts, Sitara looked up in confusion and immediately spotted Wrench frantically going at his phone.

What the fuck was that idiot doing up there? Turning to Nicole who’d been enjoying the somewhat chaotic music well though, Sitara found her dead still. Face sheet white.

Putting a hand on her shoulder, Sitara yelled over the panicking crowd, “Nicole? Are you oka-”

Sitara wasn’t even able to finish the sentence before Nicole bolted, shoving through the crowd and escaping out the front door.


	5. Secrets, Secrets, Are No Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole calls Sitara over to discuss what happened at the concert.

“No, you get the fuck off me,” Marcus said, shoving Wrench away from him as he tried to snuggle up to him, “I’m pissed as hell at the both of you. Wrench, I kinda expect that shit from you but Sitara? Sitara? I thought you were smarter than this.”

Immediately after the fiasco at the concert Sitara and Wrench had gone straight to Marcus because of course they did.

And man if he wasn’t rightly pissed.

“I was just-” Sitara started before being cut off by a finger in the face.

“You were just being a damn idiot fool is what you were doing,” Marcus said, still pushing Wrench an arm’s length away.

“Look that horse is out of the barn, can you just help us?” Sitara said, putting her hands together.

“I’m very, very inclined to leave you two to deal with this mess yourselves.”

Marcus was trying his damnedest to look stern but his caring nature was trying very hard to surface.

Taking advantage of him being distracted keeping Wrench’s affection at bay, Sitara leaned on his shoulder and looked up at him, “Is there a ‘but’ coming?”

“Fuck, I hate that there is but there is a ‘but’,” Marcus groaned, giving up and letting Wrench hug him tightly around the waist, “But this… this might be dangerous. I don’t… I don’t think Nicole is a hacker herself but clearly she’s either got someone very big and very scary watching over her OR chasing after her.”

“Which is worse?” Sitara mused.

“I’d say watching over. Chasing? We can deal with chasing, quietly and by ourselves. But watching over is more personal and most likely someone she cares about.”

“Well, what should we-” Sitara started before being cut off again, this time by her phone going off in her hand. Nicole’s name flashing on screen alongside the text alert.

“What’s it say?” Marcus said, leaning over it with her.

After all the frantic texts of Sitara asking where Nicole went was her reply, a few hours later. An apology, an offer to meet tomorrow, an offer to explain everything.

\- - -

Showing up at Nicole’s house wasn’t quite as exciting as it had been before.

On the drive over, Sitara was trying to find the lines she wasn’t willing to cross. While she intended to try and make this work…

But she had some deal breakers in mind. If Nicole was involved with gang activity… with what happened to Horatio, she couldn’t handle that. Even though if Nicole was involved with a gang it most certainly wouldn’t be the Tezcas. Maybe like, the Bratvas or something though. Nicole could maybe be Russian.

Or what if Nicole was tied to Blume higher ups? What if she was a cog in the very machine Sitara is trying to dismantle? She wasn’t looking for some Romeo and Juliet bullshit.

Nervously, Sitara raised a hand and knocked on the door.

Almost instantly, Nicole opened it. She looked like she hadn’t slept all night as she spoke, “Uh, hey, come on… come on in.”

Sitara obliged, finding herself standing in the kitchen. Set on the table off to the side were two cups of what could be assumed to be tea.

“I would have asked you what kind you’d like but, uh, turns out I only have strawberry,” Nicole confirmed, as she sat down and gestured for Sitara to join her, “You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to.”

“Strawberry is fine,” Sitara awkwardly replied, sitting on the opposite side.

Tapping her fingers on the sides of her own mug, Nicole looked pained, “So… I have some things… I have to tell you. And honestly? I’m pretty prepared for you to run screaming. I would have rathered this wait until we’re further into the relationship but apparently… apparently it’s enough of an issue that I’m just going to have to set it on the table.”

Sitara didn’t really know what to say to that so she just nodded, awkwardly taking a sip of her tea.

Nicole continued at that, “Alright so I’m sure you’ve noticed I don’t… have a weird relationship to electronics.”

Trying not to look guilty Sitara nodded, “Yeah it’s… a little obvious.”

“Well… you know I left Chicago but I lied a bit about why. I didn’t just want a change of scenery. I had to leave.”

Pausing at that, Sitara put a hand over Nicole’s, “Why did you leave then?”

“My… my brother…” Nicole said, nearly shaking, “He’s a hacker. He got into some big trouble with another guy that I think… he used to work with. He kidnapped me and kept me captive for months while he made my brother help him find… something. I still don’t know what.”

Not even giving Sitara time to react Nicole kept going. Tears started to well up in her eyes as she continued, “He only let my brother talk to me over the phone but he found me eventually and helped me get out. He… he blew up a… a thing that took out the guy watching me. He told me to pick up his gun and I… I shot the second guy who came in. I know he was one of the kidnappers but h-he never hurt me. He brought me a blanket the night before. I still see his face in my nightmares.”

Again, the second Sitara tried to respond but Nicole just kept going. She was openly crying now, staring into her cup, “And I don’t… I don’t have any proof but I think that might be why my daughter died too…”

Sitara was genuinely surprised by that. While she’d been prepared for ‘my brother’s a hacker’ she hadn’t been ready for ‘and that caused me to be kidnapped and I had to shoot a guy also I have a dead daughter who might be dead because of that.’

Nicole was looking at her expectantly though, through a curtain of tears. Knowing she had to answer, Sitara was balking, “That is… I’m… I’m so sorry all that happened. That all is so… horrible.”

“I know… I know I come with a lot of baggage,” Nicole nodded, lip wibbling, “I… I understand if you want to end this here.”

“No, no, honestly… things can get complicated, I know that. I won’t pretend I don’t have some things in my past but most of it is not so… terrible,” Sitara said, holding onto Nicole’s hand a little more tightly, “But… you didn’t bring up anything that’s a deal breaker to me so as far as I’m concerned I’m still fine with this. I mean, I need to process all this obviously but… I think I can handle it.”

Nicole smiled at that, “If all that’s not a deal breaker what is?”

“Gang violence, mostly. I… lost a very close friend to that a few years back.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nicole replied, “Are you… tangled up in that at all?”

“No, he wasn’t either,” Sitara said, looking down at her drink before downing about half of it, “Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wouldn’t have hurt a fly. We’re getting off topic though, are you okay? Do you… think that whoever captured you before is still after you?”

Of course, Sitara was thinking of whoever had attacked Wrench’s phone. There were two options in front of her. Either Nicole’s captors or her brother. She didn’t like either answer.

“No, no, my brother… my brother killed them,” Nicole said, voice quieter than ever, “All of them.”

A queasy feeling was growing in Sitara’s gut as this story unravelled more and more, “Your brother… is he a danger to you?”

“No! Not directly, at least,” Nicole shook her head vehemently, “Being around him is, though. He always finds himself in bad situations and it’s… it’s so hard for me to deal with the thought of just… my big brother who I always looked up to being a killer. But despite it all… I miss him.”

“Do you have any contact with him?” Sitara asked. Thinking in the back of her mind that whether or not Nicole knew it she had a very terrifying guardian angel watching over her.

“No, no, I haven’t heard from him since I left Chicago,” Nicole aid, sipping at her tea a bit, “I used to talk to him all the time, even though he never came over to visit very often.”

Sitara was at a bit of a loss for words now, this was… so much more than she’d prepared to take in. Across from her, very nervously, Nicole offered, “I know… I know it’s a lot but if… if you want we can just stay in and watch a movie pretend like things are normal for a bit. I know it’s not but if we’re going to try and make this work, maybe it’ll help to pretend. Jackson’s at a sleepover tonight.”

“I think I’d like that,” Sitara said with a smile.

\- - -

For the next few hours they pretended things weren’t so fucked up with some very inane romantic comedies.

They ended up making fun of the movies more than genuinely enjoying them, Nicole’s arm lazily draped over Sitara’s shoulders. Even though part of Sitara’s brain was latched onto the fact Nicole’s brother was openly a killer and clearly still involving himself in her life.

But this… this was nice. Like a little island of normal in the sea of their equally weird lives.

They managed to fall asleep like that, halfway through another insipid flick starring generic blonde woman number five.

In the morning, Sitara was awoken by an unfamiliar alarm. Jerked further away from the embrace of sleep by Nicole panicking as she scooped up the offending phone and hit the off button, “Oh shit! Sitara, I have to go right now. I have to be at Andy’s house to pick up Jackson, his mom is extremely uptight and will absolutely come up with some nasty gossip if I don’t. Mom politics, you know? Well, you don’t know. Maybe one day you’ll know? I’m babbling but I have to hurry.”

This speech was given as Nicole was running to the other room, changing and coming back. Sitara was groggy but managed to stand up in time for her to be rushed towards the door along with Nicole, now dressed in a different outfit. Presumably to avoid the judgement of said Andy’s mother.

Standing at Sitara’s bike, Nicole gave her a proper goodbye, “I really had a lot of fun last night, I’m… I’m really glad that my past isn’t going to keep me from a future.”

“Yeah it’s… I won’t pretend it’s not daunting but if you’re trying to get away from a bad situation, I’m not gonna just drop you, alright?” Sitara comforted, “Besides, I can’t blame you for your brothers actions and, even if you care about them, who wouldn’t be scared of being involved with a murderer?”

Nicole smiled nervously before leaning forward and giving Sitara a quick kiss on the lips, “Or a hacker. Thank god that’s all behind me right? But I really have to get going now, talk to you later, Sitara!”

Struck by that last statement, Sitara dumbly waved at Nicole as she got in her car and drove by.

Oh was she absolutely fucked.

\- - -

Leaning against the back of the couch in the Hackerspace, Marcus put his arms over his eyes and groaned, “Okay so not only is this Nicole chick being watched over by a mass murdering hacker but she’s actively afraid of hackers. You sure you want this in your life Sitara? Really?

“Okay, well, the brother thing isn’t her fault and it doesn’t sound like he’s an active danger anymore-”

Marcus cut her off, “Except for the part where, you know, he’s totally still around and bricked Wrench’s phone?”

“That could have been automated defenses he put on her phone and computer and you know it.”

Waving her away, Marcus continued, “Man, you didn’t even touch on the fact she is scared. Of hackers. Which you are. Very actively to the point you literally lead a group of hackers. How you think that’s gonna go down because if I had to guess? Not well.”

“It’s just… a misconception,” Sitara said, “I’m not a murderer like her brother which is the actual, real problem. She’s just putting it on all hackers. I mean, I’m not scary. Am I?”

“I’m a little scared of you,” Wrench spoke up from his laptop, a few feet away.

“You don’t count,” Sitara replied, looking over at their other two, “Josh! Ray! Am I scary?”

“No,” was Josh’s flat and to-the-point answer.

Ray on the other hand made a confused old man noise and looked up from his computer for the first time, “What?”

“Ray, have you been listening at all?” Sitara chastised, “Because, to be completely honest, I wouldn’t mind your input.”

“... not really, what's goin’ on?” Ray asked.

Marcus was the one to explain, “Sitara’s new girlfriend Nicole is apparently connected to some hacker and ergo scared of them and I mean Sitara’s a hacker so li-”

Ray stopped him there, suddenly very invested in Sitara’s situation as he stomped over, “Wait. Wait, wait wait. Okay, so her name’s Nicole? And she’s involved with a big scary hacker? What’s her last name?”

Sitara gave him a weird look, “Pearce?”

Throwing his arms up in frustration, Ray swore again, “Goddamn it, girl! That’s Aiden freakin’ Pearce’s little sister.”


	6. Secrets, Secrets, Hurt Someone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole tells an unsure Sitara that she wants her to meet her son but an old familiar face resurfaces.

“Jesus, Ray!” Sitara said, throwing her arms up, “Why didn’t you say anything?! I told you about her!”

“Vaguely!” Ray defended himself, “You said her name was Nicole and you said she had a kid!”

“And you didn’t even think to say anything?!”

“Girl, you know how many women there are named Nicole?! That have kids?! A lot!” Ray yelled, “It’s a very popular name! How was I supposed to guess she was Nicole Pearce?!”

Sitara was pacing back and forth now. This was bad. Not only does she have to deal with the fact her girlfriend is scared of hackers for some very credible reasons but one of those reasons? One of the most dangerous hackers was her big brother.

And with what happened to Wrench’s phone? He’s now alerted to the fact there were hackers sniffing around his sister again.

“You have to tell her,” Marcus told her, grabbing her shoulder to stop her, “Seriously, the next time you see her. No matter what.”

“Marcus, I ca-” Sitara said before the inevitable sound of her text tone.

The boys watched her silently as she read the text before looking up at them, shellshocked, “Nicole… uh… she wants me to meet her son.”

\- - -

For almost a solid hour leading up to the event going on at Jackson’s school Marcus was sending Sitara texts.

She was staunchly ignoring them, mostly because she already knew they were all going to be demands that she tell Nicole the truth about being a hacker. Probably not even phrased differently. Just spamming her.

Sitara really didn’t know what to do about this. Because this… this was a serious step.

She’d dressed up as business casual as her artsy closet allowed. Black skirt, abstract patterned purple and green shirt, some cheap flats she bought at a thrift shop.

Walking up to the school was the most intimidating thing Sitara thought she’d ever done.

Should… should she try to tell Nicole at the start? Could she pull her aside before she even got introduced to Jackson? God, what if it makes Nicole angrier if Sitara meets Jackson first?

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Before Sitara’s flight instinct could kick in, there was a hand on her shoulder and Nicole greeted her, “Sitara! You’re early, Jackson’s still in class. If we hurry to the auditorium, we can get some really great seats!”

Not waiting for an answer, Nicole pulled Sitara into the school with a pause only to sign them in at the office.

“Jackson’s really excited to meet you, it’s all he’s been talking about for the last week,” Nicole said as she led Sitara into the sparsely occupied auditorium.

Sitara pulled a blank just smiling vacantly, “I’m looking forward to meeting him too.”

“They’ve been practicing this presentation for two months,” Nicole said, looking up at the stage, “It’s about WWII so I won’t pretend it’s a cheery affair but he didn’t have to play one of the bad guys so, win-win? He’s just one of the American soldiers.”

God, Sitara knew she should tell Nicole. She knew this was the perfect moment. But she just… didn’t.

“The stage set up is pretty nice, actually,” Sitara said as she looked up at the fairly well done map pinned on the wall, “But yeah this… is gonna be pretty depressing, isn’t it?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Nicole nodded, leaning in to whisper, “I nicked the script from his backpack while he was sleeping. Very accurate, very depressing.”

The two talked a bit about inane matters as the bell rung and kids and parents alike began to file into the auditorium. Nicole grabbed her arm and pointed at Jackson as he helped set up some cannons, “There he is! Red neck scarf, keep an eye on him.”

\- - -

Nicole hadn’t been kidding when she said the play was accurate and depressing.

Jackson’s part was admittedly small but considering how terrified he was to be up there that was probably a good thing.

She caught the kid stealing glances at her, obviously curious about his mom’s new girlfriend. But they were just flashes as he very much didn’t want to be caught staring.

After the show was over everyone was ushered into the gym for snacks, prepared by the school’s culinary club. Sitara felt guilt again as Jackson ran over and hugged his mom tightly around the waist as she crooned over him, “You did so good! See? You didn’t forget your lines.”

Jackson just nodded, smiling, but as he remembered Sitara’s existence his smile got shyer as he shrunk behind his mom a little. Looking at her without making eye contact.

“Jackson, this is Sitara,” Nicole said, putting an arm around his shoulders and pulling him forward.

Sitara smiled awkwardly herself, holding out a hand for him to shake, “It’s nice to finally meet you, Jackson. Your mom’s talked about you a lot, obviously.”

He was nodding and still looking away but speaking, quietly, “Mom’s talked a lot about you too, she really likes you.”

Nicole’s jaw dropped a little as he face went bright red while Sitara laughed, “Well, I really hope she does.”

There was a sudden phone alert, Nicole pulling out her phone before her face blanched. A sudden, stark contrast to the rosy red it was before. She looked from the text to Jackson to Sitara and back to the text.

Luckily her son hadn’t really noticed as he was quietly checking out the art on Sitara’s purse.

Nicole suddenly turned Jackson away from them, a spin of confusion. Pointing at the teacher in the distance, Nicole made something up on the spot, “Hey, I think Mr. Anderson is trying to get your attention. Go make sure it’s nothing important real quick.”

Hesitating but ultimately nodding, Jackson started making his way over to said teacher.

The second he was out of earshot, Nicole grabbed Sitara’s arm almost painfully hard and whispered to her, “My brother wants to see me.”

“What?”

“My brother.”

“I thought he was in Chicago and you didn’t talk to him.”

“So did I! But… but he says he’s here and he wants to see me,” Nicole quivered, “I don’t… I don’t know what to do.”

\- - -

Nicole still didn’t know if this was the right choice but she was sitting on the deck of a waterside pizzeria.

Sitting alone on the deck of the waterside pizzeria, Nicole contemplated if she should run.

Nicole didn’t know if this was the right choice. Hell, Sitara hadn’t known if it was the right choice when she asked her about it but her girlfriend seemed to think it was in her best interest to talk to her brother again. Get some closure on that part of her life.

She still didn’t know if it was the right decision but she was sitting here, waiting for him, nonetheless.

His presence was looming. Before she could even see Aiden she could feel him walk in and hear his heavy footsteps.

Looking up at him, Nicole felt tears bite at her eyes. Standing up she was quickly crushed into the completely weather inappropriate clothing by an almost too tight hug. He said nothing. Just held her tightly against him for a minute before letting go.

Nicole tried to retain her composure as Aiden pulled out the second seat and sat with her. She’d ordered his pizza for him. Meat lover’s with barbeque sauce. His favorite. He didn’t object as he pulled the plate towards him.

“Why… why did you come to California?” Nicole asked flat out, trying and failing not to seem accusatory, “Why did you find me again?

Aiden was quiet for a second before trying to justify this, “I’ve never been social but I’ve never felt so alone. You left with Jackson. One of my partners was killed, the other disappeared without a trace. I have no one.”

“I’m sorry Aiden but that’s… that’s not my problem,” Nicole said, averting her eyes, “Look, I love you. I’ll always love you. But I’ve got a life of my own now. Things are going well. I’ve got a serious girlfriend and I was even introducing her to Jackson when you contacted me. You… you bring trouble.”

He got quiet again, taking a bit of the fairly mediocre pizza. Mulling it over silently.

Nicole was used to it though, eating a bit of her own while she waited for him to speak again.

“I know I don’t deserve it but I’d like some sort of contact with you,” Aiden said quietly, “And maybe Jackson again one day too.”

Nicole was quiet but her arms had wrapped around her protectively.

“I miss my family, Nicole.”

Trying to stay resolute, Nicole failed. Getting up, she ended up stumbling over and crying into her big brother’s arms.

Patting her back, Aiden let her cry into his shoulder for a while before dropping the emotional bomb he’d been successfully concealing.

“There is one other thing I have to tell you, Nicole,” Aiden continued.

Leaning back, she tried to wipe away her tears, “What is it?”

“When I was trying to find you someone else was too,” Aiden said, feeling Nicole’s grip on his arm tighten as her eyes grew wider.

“Is it… is it related to-”

“No, no, it’s not the people who took you, it’s not even someone connected to me,” Aiden replied.

“Then who is it, Aiden?” Nicole asked fearfully.

“I found the kid’s phone, goes by the name of ‘Wrench.’ He’s a member of the local Dedsec group with a few of his friends.”

“What do they want with me?”

“I don’t know,” Aiden replied, letting her go and sit down again, “But I got the names of the major players of the group. Wrench, Marcus Holloway, Josh Sauchak and…”

With a sigh and a groan, Aiden paused to rub his temples. He really didn’t want to be the one to do this, he really, really didn’t want to be the one to break the little world she’d created for herself. But was she spoke up, “And?”

“Sitara Dhawan.”


	7. Can This Be Okay?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole confronts Sitara about her lies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're at the end! This was an odd little project, kinda rough considering I don't tend to write characters that really have nothing in common like this but I was determined.
> 
> I had to pretty much completely scrap my original ending because it made no sense but I like this new ending a bit better. Hope you enjoyed this odd little experiment in writing the first actual F/F Watch Dogs fic!
> 
> Hopefully in WD3 they'll actually have female characters and I can write F/F that isn't such a reach.

Sitara thought nothing of Nicole inviting her to a walk on the beach the next night.

Walking towards it, she couldn’t help but notice it was completely abandoned aside from Nicole herself. Standing there, staring out at the water.

With a smile, Sitara picked up the pace and put a hand on Nicole’s shoulder to turn her around, “Pretty romantic out here, tonight’s gonna be fun.”

But the second Nicole turn to her it was very obvious that statement was false.

“We need to talk,” Nicole said coldly as she stared Sitara down, “This was the most private public place I could think of.”

“Oh… okay, so uh, what’s up?” Sitara asked.

“I think you already know,” Nicole crossed her arms, “I mean, it’s a pretty big thing to keep from me.”

Being stared down, Sitara averted her eyes, “I didn’t… know how to bring it up.”

“How about, I don’t know, when I told you my brother was a hacker?” Nicole accused, “And told you how much it scared me?!”

“Honestly, I thought the part that scared you was the murder part,” Sitara tried to defend herself, “I’ve never killed anyone in my life, I’m just a hacktivist. My hacking is only to take down the corrupt and dangerous. I go after evil corporations and corrupt politicians not… kill people.”

“I know you’re a part of a whole group,” Nicole tossed back, “What about them?”

“Well, I don’t know what the fuck Wrench does half the ti-”

Nicole cut her off, “Aiden told me that’s the one who was trying to get into my phone! So some guy who you admittedly don’t know much about is trying to get into my stuff?! Did you know about that?!”

The guilt was evident on Sitara’s face, she never was good at hiding her emotions. Great, she’d been her own downfall. She’d told Nicole that she should meet her brother, why hadn’t she thought this through?

“Oh my god, you knew he was going to try and get into my stuff!” Nicole yelled, thundering in the completely empty beach.

“Look, I was starting to get worried you might be involved with hackers yourself,” Sitara poorly explained, “I wanted to cover the bases, I told Wrench I only wanted to know if there was something dangerous there and to stay out of anything personal.”

“Personal?! What could be more personal than digging through my phone?!” Nicole stomped the sand, “How about you could have talked to me about it?! Like an adult?!”

“I just didn’t think-” Sitara started.

“No, no, you didn’t!” Nicole shouted before starting to stomp back towards the parking lot, “This is over, Sitara! Maybe next time, don’t lie to your girlfriend!!”

Sitara stood there on the beach, dumbstruck.

\- - -

Not sure about what else to do, Sitara wandered back towards the Hackerspace. Her bike parked out front of the nearly abandoned building.

Walking through the store there was only the shopkeep, cleaning up the boxes behind him,

Sitara honestly thought she’d be alone down there but as she walked down the stairs she saw a light shining up at her. Unsure, she continued down only to find Ray alone down there. Typing away furiously at whatever he was doing.

He looked up when she stepped down, looking surprised, “Sitara! Didn’t think I’d be seein’ you tonight, didn’t you have a date with-”

As she walked closer to him it was evident that things didn’t go okay as she looked near tears, “She broke up with me, Aiden told her I was a hacker too.”

“Dangit, Aiden,” Ray grumbled, cursing his old friend, “Is he in San Francisco right now? Do you know?”

“I think so?” Sitara said, confused, “Why?”

Standing up, Ray folded up his laptop and stuck it in his bag, “I’m gonna try an’ talk to Aiden, maybe see if I can do some damage control.”

“You’d do that for me?” Sitara asked, watching him walk out.

“Well, yeah, gotta keep my kids happy, right?” Ray said over his shoulder before starting up the stairs, “Besides, I’ve seen Nicole go through hell too. It’d be nice to see some happiness for once.”

“Thanks, Ray,” Sitara smiled up at him before hugging him tightly around the waist, “I think I’ll just stay here tonight.”

“Git off before I change my mind,” Ray said, shoving at her head a little, “I gotta go talk to one hell of an antisocial motherfucker tonight.”

\- - -

The next day, Sitara was awoken abruptly by someone shaking her awake.

Blinking her eyes open, she was confused to be waking up anywhere other than her bed. Pushing herself up on the uncomfortable couch she realized she was in the Hackerspace and that the one shaking her was Ray.

“Jesus you kids are heavy sleepers,” Ray grumbled.

“What time is it?” Sitara slurred, “S’Marcus here? I wanna steal his breakfast.”

“No, no, it’s just you and me and you need to get the fuck up,” Ray said, more insistently, “I was trackin’ Aiden last night and managed to get a bead on him but he’s in trouble.”

“What? What’s happening to him?” Sitara said, very much awake now.

Ray pulled out his phone, showing her the conversation before flicking open a map, “He’s pinned down in a Blume building, they’ve got a door lock that can only be manually opened.”

“Do they know he’s in there?” Sitara asked.

“No, no, not yet,” Ray shook his head, “He got the alarm offline but if he’s there too long someone’s bound to find him. I’ve got the floor plans for ya-”

“Wait, for me?” Sitara said, wiping the sleep from her eye.

“Well no shit, you gonna send an old man in to do this?” Ray said, gesturing to the lack of other people in the room, “Who else is gonna do it?”

“We could call Marcus, he usually does-”

Ray waved a hand, “No, Sitara. This is yer chance. Nicole just broke up with you now her brother is in danger. It’s kismet. You’re meant to do this.”

Despite being a bit intimidated by the prospect, Sitara nodded, “You’re right, this is my chance!”

“Git goin’, girl!” Ray said, pushing her towards the door, “Get Aiden, get yer girlfriend back!”

\- - -

The drive was short as Sitara weaved her bike to the back of the building.

Pulling out her phone she pulled up the map. Aiden was pinned down in the basement levels, it looked like there was a pretty direct path to him.

It looked like there’d just be one dodgy hallway which seemed to be full of security measures.

Taking a run up the wall, Sitara caught onto the bottom of a fire escape and started sprinting up the stairs until she was pulling herself onto the roof. The plans from Ray showed that there were multiple roof entrances, the one she wanted was to the east.

Locating it, Sitara jerked it open. Finding it unlocked. Easily, she slid down into the deserted stairwell.

Resisting the urge to slide down the bannister, Sitara made her way down to the basement level. This stairwell was very obviously unused, dust burst up around her feet with every step. But when she reached the lowest level and peeked out the door she could see there were plenty of people walking around.

“Shit,” she swore as she flicked open her phone. Immediately, a smile crept onto her face, “Perfect!”

Quickly, she set off all the phones to go off. Immediately, the security guards rushed to open them. Each and everyone went into their offices just in time for Sitara to close all the doors and lock behind them. Quickly, she crept down the hallway as the confused security guards tried to get back out.

Arriving at the room Aiden was supposed to be pinned down at, Sitara knocked on the door and called out to him, “Aiden?”

The only response was a stern bang from the other side of the door.

“Do you know the combination?”

Two bangs. Pause. Three bangs. Pause. One bang. Pause. Two bangs. Pause. Five bangs. Silence.

Sitara punched the combination into the archaic lock, sighing in relief at the clunk of the door opening. Immediately, the door swung inward and Sitara found herself looking up at the infamous hacker like a slack jawed moron.

Aiden was intimidating but she listened as he ordered her down the hall with a curt, “We’ve got less than a minute until the security measures release those guards. Go.”

Sprint-crouching, the two of them raced back to the stairwell and started running up the stairs. No alarms went off, though, even as the two of them pulled themselves onto the roof.

For a second Sitara caught her breath but Aiden’s mind was already on the next topic, “So. You’re Sitara.”

“Yeah? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you know that,” Sitara said, nodding, “I, uh, was dating your sister but I’m also sure you already knew that too. Considering you told her about me being, you know, a hacker like you.”

Aiden was quiet for so long Sitara wondered if she should just leave but he spoke eventually, “Sorry. About that. You seem like a nice girl. Maybe I should have met you before I said anything to Nicole.”

“It’s not your fault. Honestly? I should have told her way earlier. How could I have guessed she would have a super specific fear of hackers? The only reason I didn’t advertise that fact is I didn’t want to deal with a groupie situation. Dedsec is popular around here, I didn’t want to be someone’s accessory. I like Nicole because, you know, she’s just… normal.”

Aiden nodded, “She’s not like us.”

“No, she isn’t,” Sitara replied.

\- - -

Pulling up to Nicole’s house to drop off Aiden, Sitara was ready to just drive away again but found the man grabbing her arm and dragging her towards the door.

Nicole quickly trotted out, throwing her arms around her brother’s neck with tears in her eyes, “Aiden! I got a text from an unlisted number saying you were in trouble!”

Patting his sister’s back, Aiden nodded, “Got pinned down getting some information. An old friend of mine’s the one who found me and texted you. He’s got some connections at Dedsec and, well, I think you recognize who they sent.”

Letting go of her brother and looking behind him, Nicole blinked in confusion, “Sitara?”

“Uh, hey, Nicole,” Sitara blushed, “I’m… I’m probably not who you’d want to see right no-”

She was interrupted by Nicole pushing her brother inside and letting the door slam behind him to give them some privacy. Nicole reached over and hugged her tightly around the shoulders as well, “Thank you for saving my brother, Sitara.”

Sitara hugged her back before leaning back to look Nicole in the eyes, “I’m… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. About the hacker stuff. I didn’t think it would be a big deal until you told me about your brother and by then I just… got scared. You’re just… such a nice, cool, normal person and I don’t get to be around people like that. I didn’t want our time together to end. Would you consider… maybe trying again?

Nicole looked down, “Sitara… I like you too. Basically for the opposite reasons. Your world is wild and different but it’s… it’s also scary. I need to think about it.”

“I understand,” Sitara nodded.

“I’ll… I’ll be in touch.”

\- - -

“And what was the last thing she said?” Marcus said, trying to get Sitara to stop checking her phone for just five seconds.

Sitara nodded, doing so anyways as she lamented, “It’s been two weeks now, that means it’s basically over, right? Like, a week was totally the cap, right?”

“I dunno, you DID lie to her and get your friend to hack her,” Marcus replied, “If I was her I’d be takin’ my damn sweet time deciding if I want to take you back too.”

It was a quiet day at the Hackerspace, everyone lazily lounging around. Sitara was curled into a little stress ball, though, the sole source of tension in the room. Marcus sitting next to her, getting rather tired of comforting his friend. Wrench was half crushed, half dangling off the side of the couch in order to be able to rest his head on Marcus’s lap. Josh was minding his own business, off in the corner by Ray who was halfway to asleep on the huge armchair they’d dragged down there for him.

To be honest, Marcus thought this was a bit of a lost cause but he wasn’t about to tell Sitara that.

Everyone jumped at the sound of the door opening, quickly taking inventory of the fact everyone was here. Jumping over the back of the couch, Marcus crouched by the bottom of the stairs with his thunderball in hand. Peeking around the corner at their visitors, he put it away for a smile, pointing up towards the intruders as he said to Sitara, “It’s for you.”

Before Sitara could even get up from the couch, the visitors walked into the room. Nicole at the front with Jackson, Aiden behind them having been tasked with carrying several large boxes of pizza.

Nicole looked a bit sheepish, “Well… I probably took too long to say this but-”

She cut short by Sitara hugging her tightly, laughing, “Don’t even worry about it!”

Walking past the two of them reuniting, Aiden placed the pizza on the table as Ray sauntered over. While Sitara and Nicole kissed, Ray took the first slice, “So, it worked?”

Watching his sister begin to have Sitara introduce her to the quickly gathering crowd of boys, Aiden nodded, “Almost didn’t. Also, I almost actually got caught pulling that stunt, Ray. Next time you pick a place for me to get ‘stuck’ don’t do it right outside a security guard nest.”

“Well, hopefully we ain’t gonna have to do this again,” Ray say through a mouthful of food.

Seeing the two women smiling and laughing, Aiden had a feeling things were going to be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Check out more of my stuff at [catisacat](http://www.catisacat.tumblr.com/)
> 
> I also draw and junk! I also have a recently started webcomic, [The Roadtrippers](http://www.the-roadtrippers.tumblr.com/) if you wanna get in on the ground floor of that.


End file.
